Introduction
As technology and computers continue advancing in today’s society, the effect of both is becoming more and more evident on their users. Studies have been conducted on the effects of technology and computers on various aspects of life such as business, military, computer science, and library science.
These studies have revealed that humans react due to their continued interaction with technology, a condition that has been referred to as technostress. Technostress has received many definitions since it first came up with Graig Brod. However, many researchers have defined it as a modern disease caused resulting by the pressure associated with the use of computers and technology with a reflection of human upset, anxiousness, and fear in an unhealthy manner.
Library users and attendants have been affected largely as the information on any technology advancement piles up into automated library hence increasing the levels of the condition. Studies have shown that technology has adversely changed the normal workplace in many fields (Brillhart 2004). For instance, many research materials are now available in electronic forms and many services are now being offered online. This has resulted in the loss of control of information in the various fields using the technology.
Technostress and its components
Technostress is simply one form of workplace stress which interacts with other workplace effects. Technology users may experience various health impacts even adverse ones such as an increase in heartbeat rate, increased blood pressure, lack of self-esteem, depression, and muscle tension. Tu et al., (2005) cite the most common technostress contributors as performance anxiety, information overload, role conflicts of professional identity, and burnout.
Performance anxiety may be related more to the use of computers in carrying out tasks. Such anxiety may cause the user to be more, than one should, concerned about minor and to some extend normal things such as damaging the computer or incompetence due to unfamiliarity with the computer hence one gets afraid of handling the computer or performing a task using a certain technology. As in the case of library workers, the anxiety comes in where the workers are pressured to have common knowledge in all subjects involving different technologies.
Anxious individuals engage in weak thoughts such as expected failure in a certain task and may even lead to avoidance of technology by the user. Stress has been demonstrated to have various physical manifestations that have been associated with an increase in the body’s levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline (Brillhart 2004).
Some of the physical impacts include intestinal upsets, severe headaches, and general irritability. Other impacts as demonstrated by Tu et al., (2005) include the inability of one to pay attention to recreational activities and sleeping difficulties. Stress resulting from anxiety, for instance, occurs when a librarian is required to search for information that one is not well aware of or may be asked to obtain information from an old system that is not used more often.
Although technostress always exhibits involvement of technology, some individual values also contribute to the stress such as personal problems of employees. Tu et al., (2008) identified the impact of overload of work, personal life, level of technology being used, and crisis in the workplace as the primary cause of technostress in many operational fields today, especially in library science.
As the technology in such fields continues advancing, all professionals are under the pressure due to the expectations of performing their job-related tasks at a much faster speed which may be alongside other nontechnological tasks. As a result, such workers may take some, could be professional through training or personal through experimentation, trying to get familiar with the ever-changing and complex technology. This creates a condition where such workers spend much more time on job-related tasks to the point that they end up consuming their time. Information overload refers to the overwhelming, and constantly growing, amount of information available over the Internet.
Another major technostress aspect is the role conflicts of professional identity which is particularly related to libraries and library staff. This effect comes when professionals feel like technology is making them lose their positions in the workplace. Conflicts of professional conflicts, when combined with other causes of technostress, are more likely to result in burnout, a condition characterized by avoidance behavior, especially of technology and computers.
Users of the library may be affected negatively as they may not be in better positions to locate certain information. Similarly, library staff will become incompetent and less professional.
Additionally, research conducted by Tu et al., (2005) on levels of technostress in Chinese employees, confirmed that technostress is caused by various components each of which has its characteristics. The study was conducted using data from America and it confirmed that workload is one of the major components of technostress. This composition was found to be characterized by faster working speed and changes in the way that tasks were previously conducted before the introduction of technology (Tu et al., 2005).
The other finding was on tech-invasion which was characterized by reduced time on personal matters on the part of the workers. The inability to handle the changes that come along with technology was identified as techno-complexity. Another very significant component identified was techno-insecurity characterized by fear of losing a job position due to incompetence. The final component was identified as techno-uncertainty characterized by the frequency of changes in technology which may not inspire the users (Tu et al., 2005, p. 81).
Managing technostress
Similar to many other stress-related problems, effective management of technostress begins with self-programming where one chooses to handle such situations healthily. However, most of the methods used to cope with technostress are appropriate to some specific workplaces and not others. Handling stress is more personal than it is professional as different people adopt different methods. However, various common methods work for almost anyone faced with any kind of stress. To begin with, sound health is very essential in maintaining technostress as it does to other forms of stress.
Natural health can be achieved through proper nutrition, physical exercise, and taking frequent rest. Off the job, activities are equally essential, especially where the workload involved in the workplace is intense. These activities provide not just physical but also mental fitness (Kupersmith 2005). Besides staying healthy, developing a positive attitude is also important as one realizes that stress is normal to everyone and through reading articles of people who have managed to cope with it, one gets the motivation that he, too will do it.
This way, a more relaxed and positive attitude is created that may as well cause the affected person to seek professional help unlike those who live in denial due to a negative attitude towards the condition. In addition, creating humor out f those situations relating to technology pressure could also help. Another very effective way of handling technostress is proper management of time.
Through management of time, one can avoid being the ‘victim’ in the workplace, something which would have gotten in the way of constructive reasoning and acting. Time management will also enable one to create time for learning and training on how to perform tasks based on technology. However, time management requires the setting of priorities which can be quite a challenge to many people. Additionally, setting realistic goals is a very important measure because as we all know, no one can ever be perfected and if one tries to be a perfectionist, he/she is likely to get frustrated which consequently leads to stress.
Technostress management does not only involve the workers, but also the management because the personal strategies described earlier can only be effective if the organization is fully supportive of the employees. Organizations need to believe in their employees based on the specialty of each person in the sense that each contributes to the success of the organization. The organization may also need to train some workers how to use various technological strategies.
In such cases, they need to be patient and believe in the learning process of the employees since everyone starts up somewhere at one point in life. A positive attitude from the management can be very effective especially where the workers involved are sensitive to self-esteem (Kupersmith 2005). In addition, there is the need by the management to foster cooperation between workers and even various departments. This way, workers can get assistance from their colleagues whenever needed.
Similarly, the management needs to provide opportunities for practicing since technology is more based on practice than the knowledge itself. Creating specialization in the workplace is also important so that everyone concentrates on the field he is best in. the technicalities involved in technology may as well be simplified to make the workload much easier for users.
Conclusion
Technostress is becoming more and more common as technology continues to advance. Its management, therefore, is what matters to both organizations and workers. The most important aspect of managing technostress is the creation of a positive attitude towards the process since it fosters the initiation of the rest of the strategies involved.
Reference List
Brillhart, P.E. (2004). Technostress in the workplace: Managing stress in the electronic workplace. Journal of American Academy of Business, 5(1/2), 302-307. Web.
Kupersmith, J. (2005). Technostress and the reference Librarian. Web.
Tu, Q., Wang, K., Shu, Q. (2005). Computer-related technostress in China. Communications of the ACM, 48(4), 77-81. Web.